FORECLOSURE DEAL CASH COMING

Notices on the way alerting borrowers of $9.3B settlement

Foreclosure payments

Who: More than 4 million borrowers across the nation who were in the foreclosure process in 2009 and 2010 will likely get letters from Rust Consulting, hired by regulators, within three to seven weeks. Others may be asked to provide tax information before a payment can be sent.

Amount: From a few hundred dollars to $125,000.

More information: If you have questions on the settlement, call Rust Consulting at (888) 952-9105. If you want to read more about the foreclosure settlement, visit
occ.gov/independentforeclosurereview.

Borrowers who were in the foreclosure process in 2009 and 2010 may want to watch their mailboxes closely starting in mid-April.

Federal officials have sent notices to more than 4 million people across the nation to let them know cash is coming their way — part of a $9.3 billion deal between banking regulators and mortgage servicers that settles foreclosure-abuse allegations.

The allegations center on robo-signing, the bank practice of approving loan paperwork with little or no approval.

Expected payment amounts range from a few hundred dollars to $125,000, depending on the possible wrongdoing in each case, said the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. A wrongly assessed fee would likely merit the minimum compensation, while a wrongful foreclosure could secure the maximum, a spokesman for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said in a previous interview with U-T San Diego.

Consumers did not have to fill out paperwork to receive these payments. Also, by taking the money, borrowers are not waiving their rights to pursue legal cases against those servicers, regulators said.

The settlement, originally pegged at $8.5 billion in January, replaced a costly and lengthy process that let borrowers request free foreclosure reviews. That process encountered a host of issues, from lack of participation to drawn-out review processes. Regulators got a total of 495,000 requests out of 4 million-plus solicitations. At least 56,000 of those came from San Diego County.